


Heart's Day

by Taikanaakka



Series: Additional Chapters to Mirage [2]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Beginnings, Daggerfall, F/M, Fights, High Rock, Romance, Tamriel, Valentine's Day, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 14:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18143486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taikanaakka/pseuds/Taikanaakka
Summary: This is the sequel for my fan fiction chapter Old Life Festival, these both are additional chapters to my Elder Scrolls Online fan fiction story Mirage.





	Heart's Day

Officer Aleksei Virchow gathered his remaining strength to make the last push; he would be running out of stamina soon. He dealt the final blow with his sword, trying to disarm his opponent in the duel. He succeeded in getting his opponent to drop his weapon - but soon after that he felt how his own sword fell from his shaking hands and he heard the clang caused by the both blades hitting the ground almost simultaneously.  
  
"I...surrender...I couldn't take another round...and...I don't want to...collapse from exhaustion in front of my troops. You're the winner," his opponent - his fellow officer - said to him, while he was catching his breath. He did not answer immediately, since he had to catch his breath first, too; then he replied: "No. I think it's a tie - I couldn't take another round, either!" They got up from the ground they had fallen onto, shook hands and announced that it ended in a tie. The audience that had been watching the duelling competition at the training grounds broke into applauds; they both were skilled fighters and the match had been even and intense, and therefore interesting to watch.  
  
Aleksei loved these duelling competitions they had regularly; in other circumstances he would have felt awkward of all the attention that was on himself but in the duels it did not bother him, since he was always so focused on trying to beat his opponent. Naturally, he had gotten used to giving orders to even a larger number of people but he disliked being the focus of everyone's attention, if he was not in his role, leading the troops.  
  
He walked towards the castle of Daggerfall, to the side wing where the leaders of the troops lived and had their workrooms. He would have the on call duty that day, and he also wanted to finish some paperwork still during that day - but first he would tidy himself up a bit, after the hard duelling competition. However, before anything else, he would empty the first flagon of water he would find and get himself something to eat!  
  
A familiar voice wishing him happy Heart's Day awakened him from his thoughts; he noticed Maxine, who was heading to the same direction as he was. "Thanks, the same for you," he replied; he wondered what kind of business she would have in the castle. "Congratulations for winning the duels, sir," she said to him and smiled. "In fact, it was a tie -" he pointed out and then added: "- but thanks anyways." He quickly swept away the loose dirt from his armour and tried to subtly do something smart to his hair which was wet and tangled, having at some point of the last duel partially escaped from the ponytail he had worn at least at the beginning of the day. "You are very good with the sword, sir - I wish I was even half as good with the blade as you are," she complimented him. "Oh well, I've been practising to fight with the sword ever since I was a child," he said and asked her when they had both entered the castle: "What are you doing here, by the way?"  
  
"I'm coming to duty, sir," she replied and explained him somewhat confused: "I'm supposed to keep watch at the officers' living quarters and the rest of this area today, right?" "But I don't remember having assigned you to that post for today," he stated astonished. "Oh, but Captain Aresin came to say to me after the practise he arranged that he'll put me to this post...and at quite short notice, if I can say my opinion about it, sir!" she wondered. "Oh, I didn't know about that - Captain Aresin told that to you?" he asked surprised. "Yes, sir - I was pretty frightened when he came to talk to me, I thought first that I must have screwed up something very badly, cos the Captain decided to speak with me directly!" she replied, still looking a bit nervous as she recalled the encounter with Captain Aresin. "It rather appears that I haven't taken into account everything necessary when I made the shift lists, if the Captain himself decided to change them," he reckoned, feeling slightly insecure about that but trying to sound laid-back and confident.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry that you had to come to work today - you had other plans for the evening of the Heart's Day for sure," he stated apologetically but she replied: "Oh, no problem at all, sir! It's perfectly fine...I did have plans, though...I had agreed to go out with a lad from our troops. But nothing special, really - I guess we both were getting desperate cos it seemed that we both would have to go to the festivities alone, so as I happened to mention about not having a date to him when we were having a break in the Captain's training session, he kind of suggested that we could go there together and it sounded like a good idea then but I dunno, he isn't that interesting but I just hope he'll find another date at such short notice, though, sir..." She felt how she blushed heavily; she felt extremely embarrassed, when she realised that she had started to explain such irrelevant and silly things to her superior. However, if he considered their conversation being waste of his time, he did not show it in any way. Instead, he smiled at her and said: "And at least you got a nice post for the Heart's Day. That one was always my favourite...to get to spend the time indoors, so no matter how bad the weather is, it's always warm and dry here, and nothing ever happens, so it's a very easy post, too - and I even remember that a couple of times the officers invited me to play strategy games with them at the lounge back then!" "Oh, sounds nice, indeed, sir," she replied. "And I remember how nice and easy the officers' work mostly seemed - but I definitely had no idea of how much paperwork they have to do," he continued and laughed a bit.  
  
"I'm sorry that you had to stay working at the Heart's Day, too, sir," she said to him but he replied: "I volunteered to take this shift, in fact. I don't like having the festival days off now that...Linnea is...gone." "Oh, right - I'm so sorry, sir!" she said compassionately. "Well, I think I'll really need to finally get something to eat and drink," he quickly stated and informed her: "When I'm finished, I'll be doing the paperwork in my room, in case you need to find me for some reason."

When he had finished his meal, he went to clean himself up a bit. After that he combed his hair and tied it up into a ponytail. It was important to him to look tidy and that his hair was perfectly in order - except that the small strand of his cinnamon-red hair had already escaped from the ponytail, again! It annoyed him greatly how that little strand always rebelled against him. It was almost as if it had a will of its own; no matter what he did, at some point he always found that strand stubbornly hanging there. However, now he was too tired to continue the everlasting battle against that rebellious lock of hair - and naturally, he had more important things to take care of than it - thus he let it be and walked to his office to continue doing the paperwork he intended to finish still during that day.  
  
He sat at his desk in his room; he stretched his arms and yawned. Reading the notes about the inquiries of arrested persons that had done petty crimes was extremely boring and dull - he wondered why in Oblivion someone had even arrested a lad that had stolen a single sweet roll, instead of just confiscating the stolen goods and making him pay a small fine - and his weariness after the intense duelling competition did not help him to stay very focused on what he was doing. The sun was setting already, and it was getting dark; he got up and admired the beautiful view from the window before he lit the candle on his desk and sat down again to continue his work. Only after a while, reading the texts started to get slow due to his tiredness; he had to read the same sentences over and over several times before he could catch their meanings.  
  
Soon he found himself walking on a little path leading to the small river nearby the city - he ended up in the exactly same place where he and Maxine had encountered the Electrical disturbance and fought against the Daedra that had spawned from there. It was springtime already. Birds were singing, some flowers were blooming and most trees had leaves on their branches; the sun was shining in the bright sky and it was warm. He wondered how fast spring had arrived and he was slightly startled that he had missed its coming - it had been winter just a moment ago, and he did not even remember anything of the change of the season.  
  
He noticed that someone was walking towards him from the woods - then he recognised who she was and happily rushed to greet her. "Oh, dear Gods! Linnea! I've missed you so much, I thought you were dead!" he exclaimed as he embraced her. "I really thought you were dead...or are you real? At least you feel so real to me now but..." he then said sorrowfully; despite that she was there with him now, he understood that she really could not be there, since she was supposed to be dead. Then he reckoned that perhaps he had fallen in a battle and they both were now on Aetherius - but on the other hand, he did not remember any fight where that could have happened to him.  
  
"In fact, I'm not dead, I'm alive and well -" she replied him, smiling, yet looking somewhat sad, and revealed: " - but this is your dream." "Oh...this is just a dream so you aren't real, after all," he said disappointed but she pointed out: "It doesn't necessarily mean that I wouldn't be real - and I'm here with you now, right?" Before he would have time to reply anything, she kissed him intensively and then said: "I've missed you so much...I just wanted to see you again, so I came to visit you in your dream, because it was possible for me now to do so." Now that he was aware of that he was asleep, her presence in his dream felt maybe even more painful than wonderful but he said to her, nevertheless: "I've been missing you, too...every single day, ever since you left...I'm so happy to see you again - even if this is only a dream." She took his hand and said: "Now we're together again, dear - even if I can't stay with you as long as I'd wish to...so let's make the most of the time we have together."  
  
"Oh, I didn't know you have such a classy taste concerning women's dressing, mister Virchow! I should've worn something fancy more often," she said, smiling deviously, as she realised that instead of her own mage robes, in his dream she was wearing a light-green, elegant long dress which corset and long sleeves were decorated with fine, golden lace. He smiled at her comment and felt how he blushed; he looked at his own apparel and noticed that he was wearing the uniform he had worn at his work before he had been promoted.  
  
"Hey, who's that pretty lass there, dear?" she asked curiously. When he turned to look at the direction where she pointed to, he saw Maxine, who was standing there. She was also dressed in an evening dress; hers was light-blue and had white lace on it, and it actually looked a bit like a wedding dress. "Oh, she's just a lass from my troops," he said, feeling guilty for some reason, and cried out: "Please, don't be jealous at her, darling!" "Why should I be jealous?" she wondered, sounding amused. "I...I dunno, in fact, dear...we're just friends, really!" he explained to her. She looked him into eyes and - even though it seemed to be painful for her to say so - she stated him with a firm tone: "I only want you to be happy, that's what matters, dear. And I want you to move on in your life, so...if you like her, then...don't be afraid to..." Then she turned to look at her and suggested: "You should present her to me, of course! I've got to say that I'm really nosy about her, dear!"  
  
He looked at Linnea and Maxine who were sitting on a trunk of an old, fallen tree and smiled; he was happy that they seemed to get along so well. They were discussing about something that was probably related to magic, since they appeared to be comparing the spells they cast. Maxine's pet clannfear ran to merrily greet him. It sniffed his hand; when he scratched its neck, it started to make strange, happy-sounding croaking noises and leaned against him contently. "Thanks for saving my life back then, buddy," he whispered to the tall daedric creature that to some extent resembled a large, really strange-looking dog that was standing on its hind legs.  
  
"Oh, come here, boy! Let's give Mr. Virchow and Linnea some privacy," he heard Maxine shouting to her pet, and it ran back to its mistress - now he was alone with Linnea again. She looked so beautiful in the soft light of the evening.  
  
The day had passed fast, and the setting sun painted the western sky with the shades of red and yellow. He held her in his arms as they admired the beautiful landscape. As she was gazing into the horizon, she whispered to him sadly: "I must go now, dear, I can't linger here much longer," but he held her still and said desperately: "I don't want to let you go! Not again!" "I have to save the High King Emeric, he needs my assistance," she explained but he objected upset: "Damn it, I don't care! Screw the King! I abandoned you in the castle of Daggerfall to save the King and you almost died! Then I let you go - twice - and you really died while saving Glenumbra! This time I won't let you go, this is my dream, damn it!" The western sky glowed in red and orange. Now, instead of the stunning sunset, it rather looked frightening, as if the horizon was burning. They heard the noise that sounded like the ground beneath them was crumbling - the area surrounding them appeared to be detached from the rest of the world somehow.  
  
"Oh, by Sheogorath's Madness, this is what Abbot Durak warned me about...I should've understood that this would be too dangerous but...I just wanted so badly to meet you again..." she spoke mainly to herself, sounding startled and said to him desperately: "Really, you must let me go! If we don't get out of here before your dream collapses, we'll be trapped in here forever!" "Then we'll be together for all eternity," he stated and held her tighter.   
  
The horizon was on fire, indeed, and the flames started to spread along the ground; they were surrounded by a fiery circle. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have come here and put you to this danger," she said to him, tears streaming across her face, and stated: "I'll fix this mess, I promise! You must let me go now, I'll deal with the monsters that will spawn soon - you must leave this dream at once!" "No, I won't leave you fighting here alone!" he shouted. "She's in trouble, you have to help her," she quickly stated; he noticed that Maxine was fighting alone against a great number of Dremora. Her pet clannfear took a hit from one of them to protect its mistress, and it cried in agony in a heart-breaking way as the Dremora's blade sank into its flesh; he also heard Maxine exclaiming shocked.  
  
"Hold on, I'm coming to help you!" he shouted at her, and said to Linnea: "Please, don't go!" even though he knew that as soon as he would draw his sword and run to Maxine, she would be gone. "Goodbye. I love you," she whispered to him, and then she disappeared into the flames.  
  
"Quickly, follow me, sir!" Maxine said to him. When he reached her site, she took his hand and pulled him through the portal she had created for them.  
  
Aleksei felt how he was falling down - and then he woke up on the floor in front of his desk. He was somewhat dozy; he still smelled the smoke and sensed the warmth of the flames. Before he was fully awake, he heard Maxine shouting: "Oh, dear Gods!" and saw her casting a frostbite spell - then he noticed the candle that had fallen onto the floor from the desk, along with some pieces of paper. "Oh, Gods, you really should be more careful, sir! It's dangerous to fall asleep close to a burning candle like that!" she said to him appalled. "Oh...right," he said as he got up, feeling embarrassed by the incident. "Maybe you've been working too much recently, sir," she stated concerned; in her opinions, he often looked quite weary these days. "Maybe I really should get more rest," he admitted.  
  
For some reason, he now paid more attention to her looks; he observed that she was wearing her hair differently today, it seemed that she had spent greater effort to her hairdo than she usually did, and she was apparently wearing a fragrance that had the scent of jasmine in it. Probably she had dressed up for the evening of the Heart's Day, before she had found out that she would have to stay working. On the other hand, he noticed that she seemed to also have fixed her uniform with the belt so that it fitted her better on her waistline.  
  
"Would you like to have some coffee, sir? I could fetch it, if you wish," she offered. "I think I really would need a cup of coffee now - if it's not too much trouble for you, of course," he replied, and suggested: "Get yourself some, too, if you want to - we could go to the lounge to drink it together." "Oh, I'd love to, sir!" she replied, sounding delighted.  
  
"Look, sir, I also found some sweet rolls that were served in the kitchen," she said to him happily as she carried the drinks and the baking to the table. " Thanks...right, it's the Heart's Day today, indeed, so maybe that's why they were there," he assumed. He was surprised when he saw how tiny amount of coffee she had in her cup; she probably noticed that, since she revealed him a bit shyly, while filling her cup with milk to dilute the beverage: "In fact, I don't like coffee...not at all, sir!"  
  
Soon they noticed Captain Aresin entering the castle. He saw them sitting there, and stopped to chat with them. "Hey, happy Heart's Day to you!" he greeted them. "The same for you, sir," they replied him. "Oh, you have found the sweet rolls, too. Excellent," the Captain said and asked: "Has everything been alright today?" "Yes, sir, it's been a very calm day," Aleksei replied him. "Good. Let's hope that things remain like that," the Captain said. Now that the Captain was there, Aleksei wanted to ask about the matter that had been bothering him: "By the way, sir, did I...make some kind of mistake with the guards' shift lists?" The Captain laughed a bit amused and answered: "Don't worry about that, you didn't do any mistakes with it, I just decided to change it a bit." "Oh, great, thank you, sir," he replied, sounding relieved. The Captain continued walking to his office; on his way, he whistled the melody of the song _Stagger and Sway_ and smiled to himself.  
  
When they had finished drinking the coffee and eating the sweet rolls, Aleksei said that he would have to take care of some things at the market place but he would be back soon - when he returned, he said to her: "Let's go to the northern tower," appearing to be in haste. She quickly got up and headed there with him. She wondered why he was in such a hurry; she had just a moment ago checked that area and there had been nothing suspicious going on there, at least she had not noticed anything abnormal there.  
  
As they entered the tower that was in the part of the castle that was not in use anymore, he explained her: "People at the market place talked about the traditional firework show, that it'd start soon. I just remembered that Anton once said to me that this is probably the best place in the whole city to watch it!"  
  
"Happy Heart's Day, sir!" she said to him as they admired the spectacular firework show that the Mages Guild arranged, and added: "This is probably the best Heart's Day I've ever had." "Happy Heart's Day for you, too - I'm glad that yours didn't turn out to be dull, because you had to stay working," he replied. "No, not at all...quite the opposite," she said. He smiled; when she would go to her room at the guards' dorms, she would find the flowers he had left on her bed.


End file.
